HardisonInk.com. Fighter jet pilots fly in formation; Putnam Lodge attracts business to Dixie County

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1 Fighter jet pilots fly in formation; Putnam Lodge attracts business to Dixie County This photograph is through the courtesy of Julie Sims ofwww.julieinthesky.com. It is named four ships over Oshkosh. Tom Proctor and Larry Labriola are piloting two of the jets in this picture. By Jeff M. Hardison March 6, 4:07 p.m. * Updated With Video By Zach Cassidy on March 10, 10:07 p.m. CROSS CITY REGIONAL AIRPORT Some time ago, inclement weather caused one jet pilot to land at Cross City Regional Airport, and after he stayed at The Putnam Lodge he decided he needed to tell all of his friends about this great place to stay. World Heritage Air Museum President Marty Tibbits and fighter jet pilot Zach McNeill shake hands in the Pilot's Lounge at Cross City Regional Airport on Saturday morning (March 5). The Photo Above and All Photos Below are by Jeff M. Hardison March 6, 4:07 p.m -- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

2 Zach McNeill, 43, of Corpus Christi, Tex., said he found Ed and Bev Pivacek to be delightful hosts. The Putnam Lodge was a wonderful place to stay, he said. As a result of his pleasant visit to Dixie County previously, McNeill said he believes the L-39 jet pilots who participate with the World Heritage Air Museum should meet in Dixie County each year. From Thursday through Saturday (March 3-5), there were six of these classic jets at Cross City Regional Airport. World Heritage Air Museum President Marty Tibbits, 48, of Detroit flew in the passenger seat of McNeill s jet as that vehicle landed in Cross City on Saturday morning (March 5). Tom Proctor stands next to his jet. The 11 'confirmed kills' of pigeons.

3 The inside of an L-39c jet's cockpit looking from outside the plane and as if entering the cockpit from the left side. Tom Proctor's drawing to show positions of two jets, where the wingman is guiding his aircraft with its nose 30 degrees behind the nose of the lead jet pilot's vehicle.

4 Four of the six jets are parked early Saturday morning (March 5) before the fog lifts.

5 All of the L-39 pilots have a strong passion for flying their experimental class of exhibition aircraft. All six are involved with the World Heritage Air Museum, which has a mission of rescuing military jet aircraft from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, and returning them to flight status. These pilots of various ages enjoy using their jets to encourage the young people of America to dream, wonder and soar. All of these L-39 jet pilots went through extensive training and spent significant money to attain what once was a dream for each of them to have their own jet fighter to fly. One 1984 Aero Vodochody (L-39c Albatross) arrived at Cross City Regional Airport on Thursday afternoon (March 3) as this plan to have some formation flying began to come together. Thursday, Friday and Saturday saw an increase in jet traffic at Cross City Regional

6 Airport. By Saturday morning, pilots of these high-performance advance jet trainer aircraft were having their final briefings of this set of these civilian sorts of sorties. It was decided who leads and who is the wingman, and there were enough sojourns into the air for all of the pilots to gain time in their jets performing in these exercises. The men all have good jokes and some of the best lines come from ultimate truths. Tom Proctor of Michigan was the first to arrive. His call sign is "Mongo." Proctor said there are two rules about call signs. First, the pilot never picks his own call sign. Second, you can't like it. Larry Labriola, 65, of Scarsdale, N.Y., landed at Cross City with his L-39 next. His call sign is Lunch. The mission of formation flying was uppermost on some pilots minds, although the fun of jetting around at high altitudes -- even out of formation -- is definitely a draw for many individuals. In formation flying, there is one lead pilot and there is one wingman or there are wingmen. A good wingman, Labriola said, is where he is supposed to be, when he is supposed to be there. Flying through the air at 250 miles per hour with a six-foot distance between wingtips means the pilots need to know what is happening. Some military pilots perform fetes of flight skill that goes beyond what these civilians do with their jets. The pilots of America's military demonstration teams, the United States Navy s (and United States Marine Corps ) Blue Angels and the United States Air Force s Thunderbirds, are some of the world's best formation and acrobatic flyers, performing death-defying tricks in fighter jets. There are formations like Fingertip Formation, which has four jets flying with a lead jet and two jets staggered on one side and a third on the other side. To grasp this concept, hold up a hand and notice how the fingertips line up. (Don t look at the thumb because it would not be involved in this formation.) In the Echelon Formation, jets are arranged diagonally. Each jet is stationed behind and to the right (a "right echelon"), or behind and to the left ("left echelon") of the unit ahead. As the wingman looks to the lead jet, he knows to visually line up two certain points of that jet to make the straight line to place the nose of his jet 30 degrees behind the nose of the lead jet. He must constantly check his throttle and the joystick of his aircraft flight control system to keep in proper formation. Formation flying like this is usually two or four jets. In the Fingertip Formation or the Echelon Formation there is also the maneuver of turning as a group. That takes thoughtful planning and coordination with all of the pilots understanding rates of speed needing to be altered depending on where in the arc their jet is positioned. Another exercise is the Pitch Out and Rejoin. In this, one jet goes out from the group and then goes under another jet, and then rejoins the formation. Larry Labriola (left) and Larry Lee discuss a plan to provide a video opportunity of a formation takeoff. Here they are also looking at a map of the area to determine places where there is the least populated regions to perform formation flying above.

7 Larry Lee, 69, of Atlanta and Bob Bull, 52, of Melbourne arrived Friday evening. At least one more jet pilot had brought his L-39 to Cross City after McNeill and before the end of action on Saturday. As these six men fly jets that were developed in Czechoslovakia, they can communicate by radio or by hand signals to each other. They display hand signals that can be seen because they can view each other through their Plexiglas jet canopies. That is how close they are to each other in the air. During some of the weather-influenced time on the ground Friday morning, Labriola said he believes the last pilot may have been born already. He said there is so much automated flight now, that pilots who use manual controls may become a thing of the past in years to come. As for the pilots participating in this formation flying event launched from Cross City and taking place in the air over an expanse of North Central Florida, they were not booked into an airshow. These jet pilots all are driven by their love for high-speed formation flying, which takes natural talent, a lot of money, and the time and desire to pull it all together. The men all have varying degrees of skill and every one of the pilots knows what they think of their own ability and that of their colleagues. Trust, training, alertness to safety and knowledge of the physics and geometry involved with successful formation flying, are all part of the fabric that holds them all together in the air. As for the fabric of jumpsuits or flight-suits, sometimes the measurements of width and girth of a pilot might be something he had hoped for, but the reality of space filled by a body sometimes conflicts with the vision one has of his flight-suit size. Each pilot can tell about their jet, much as the collectors and drivers of collectible cars and trucks. Proctor has owned his jet since He thinks the L-39c is a phenomenal jet that provides a wonderful flight. It is the most popular fighter type of jet owned by civilians with 200 to 230 being registered. It is a civilian jet warbird. Civilians cannot own functional military jets, Proctor mentioned. His jet is painted like an F-14 Tomcat The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is a supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The L-39c will not go that fast. It is not supersonic (having a maximum possible speed in excess of the speed of sound). It has a maximum speed of.85 of Mach. Mach is the speed of sound. Mach is the ratio of the speed of an object to the speed of sound in the surrounding medium. For example, an aircraft moving twice as fast as the speed of sound is said to be traveling at Mach 2. Proctor said his jet will reach Mach 1 one time. That would be when it is hurtling toward the Earth going straight down and the wings rip off and it is buried into a deep smoldering hole, Proctor said of the single time when his jet could ever break the sound barrier. Jet pilots do have a sense of humor. This pilot also had a graphic expression of his humor. There are 11 pigeon silhouettes stamped up near the front of the jet. Those are confirmed kills, Proctor said. Those 11 pigeons left this plane of existence all at one time, and the number of pigeons that Proctor missed in that particular flock was far more than the 11 least fortunate of the bunch. The huge flock just appeared quickly and there was no way to avoid all of them, he said. Labriola bought his jet in He has flown it about 100 hours each year since then, he said. Labriola learned his acrobatic and formation flying from Dale Snodgrass, whose call sign is Snort. Snodgrass is legendary in the fighter jet-flying community, and he is seen by most as the real person behind the Top Gun.

8 Top Gun is a 1986 American action drama film. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr., and was inspired by an article titled "Top Guns" published in a California magazine three years earlier. The film stars Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards and Tom Skerritt. In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. As for Mongo, Lunch says he is going to be a great lead pilot someday. Saturday was a nice day for flying over Dixie County. The contrail left by this jet is from a commercial jetliner. The big white ball in the sky is the sun. The civilian jet fighter pilots stayed at The Putnam Lodge Hotel and Spa of Dixie County, which is also the home of Dixie Paintball. Proctor said he enjoyed a great meal there and the grounds are cool. Proctor was also impressed by this historic hotel. Proctor said he saw the paintball area, but was in town more for flying in formation with his fellow pilots than for participating in that sport. Ed and Bev Pivacek own the hotel. They love to bring people to Dixie County to see everything that is available here from the hunting or viewing of wildlife, to the scallop harvesting and recreational fishing, to the paintball -- and to the use of an airport. The Pivaceks did all they could to assure the pilots visit was enjoyable. They even held a private barbecue dinner for the men on Saturday evening. The Dixie County Chamber of Commerce is encouraging people to learn about and to use the airport. The Chamber is having another great event on April 23. Last year s Expo was well attended. This year, there is even going to be more activity on the runways.

9 This is a picture of the Passero Associates' rendering of the three-phase plan to add hangars at Cross City Regional Airport. The Cross City Regional Airport has new hangar construction started. This three-phase project promises to add a set of eight new T-hangars, and two big hangars. There is a waiting list with 15 names on it for the upcoming 10 hangars. The current airport office structure has a conference room with computer connections to check weather and more; a pilot s lounge to relax in a spacious lobby; and bathrooms. Airport Manager Clint Beauchamp, Assistant Manager Don Fontaine and worker Stan McClain are the staff at the county-owned public airport. Runway 4/22 is 5,005 feet long by 75 feet wide. Runway 13/31 is 5,001 feet long by 100 feet wide. For more information about the airport, please visithttp://